Anais Nin Quote

"Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live." Anais Nin

"A life undocumented is a life unlived."

Monday, August 11, 2014

Daniel Sanders

We've all run into brick walls with genealogy research. One of my brick walls has been my great-grandfather from my adoptive family, Daniel Sanders. Daniel was born August 6, 1877 and died in 1941. He married Minnie Landers October 30, 1898 in Obear, Arkansas. The family said he may have been farmed out for share-cropping work as a child. That is my brick wall. So far I've been unable to track down his parents which means I can't go back any further with the Sanders line than 1877. For the benefit of the rest of the family, though, I'm including some notes I've made on Daniel. Let me know if there is anything else I can add to it!

Dan (Grandpa) and Minnie (Granny) Sanders

1900 Census

In 1900, Daniel was married to
Minnie by this time and they’d had Bert (Burt). According to the 1900 census (which
was done June 11 in Daniel’s area), Daniel was head of the household at 22
years old. He and Minnie lived in Garland County, Arkansas in the Sulphur T.P.
(Township). Their information is on page 3 of the census. Daniel is listed as
a white male, born August of 1877, and married. He had been married for 1
year according to the census. His place of birth is listed as Illinois. His
mother and father’s birthplace is listed as Indiana (I have yet to find any
information on them yet). His occupation is listed as Section Laborer and the
Months Not Employed column had 0 in it. Under the Education section, yes is marked under “Can read”, “Can write”, and “Can speak English”. The home he and
his little family lived in was rented and it is listed as a house, not a farm.

Minnie E Sanders is listed as
his wife, white and female, born August 1876, 23 years old. She had one child
who was still living (Burt). She was born in Arkansas. Her mother and father
were born in Arkansas as well. She was able to read, write, and speak English.
No occupation is listed.

Burton A. Sanders is listed as the
son, white and male. He was born June 1899. He was 11-12 months old. His
birthplace was Arkansas and his parents’ birthplaces match up to the
birthplaces listed above.

1910 Census

This census found Daniel and his
family in Cross County, Arkansas, Mitchell Township and the information was
collected on May 12th. Daniel is listed as Dan and as head of the
household – male, white, 34. The age according to the 1900 census and his
birthdate should have put him at 32 at this point. The census is incorrect. He is
listed as being married for 14 years. According to the 1900 census, he should have
been married for 11 years. He listed Illinois as his birthplace, but
listed Illinois as the birthplace for his mother and father as well. So now
there’s another question: Were his parents born in Illinois or Indiana? His occupation
is listed as Section something. It doesn’t look like laborer, but the
handwriting isn’t the best. It’s safe to say he’s still with the railroad. He
was listed as working on his own account as opposed to being an employer or
employee. For question #26 (owned or rented), there is only a checkmark. For question
#27 (Owned free or mortgaged), there is only a checkmark. They lived in a
house and in answer to question #29 (number of farm schedule), a 2 is in the
box. Question #30 asked if he was a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army
or Navy. 9 is put there. He isn't listed as being blind. For question #32, a 5
is put in answer to whether he was deaf and dumb It looks as if the census taker used these last few boxes for his own notes and not for actually answering the
questions.

Minnie Sanders is listed as wife,
female, white, 33 years old, married for 14 years, with two children, both of
whom are still living at this point. Her birthplace and her parents’ birthplace
is listed as Arkansas. She is listed as English-speaking. “None” is listed for the occupation. She could read
and write.

Burt Sanders is listed as son,
male, white, 13 years old, single. His birthplace and his parents’ birthplace
are both listed as Arkansas which doesn’t match Dan’s birthplace. He could read, write,
and attended school since September 1, 1900. “None” is listed for
the occupation.

May Sanders is listed as
daughter, female, white, 8 years old, single. Her birthplace and her parents’
birthplace are both listed as Arkansas as Burt’s is. She spoke English, could read and write, and had attended school since September 1, 1900.

The 1910 Census doesn’t appear to
be as accurate as the 1900 census was.

At this point, I concentrated
more on Burt than I did Daniel Sanders so I haven't really looked at the census records for Daniel between 1910 and 1940.

1940 Census

Daniel and Minnie Sanders were empty nesters. They lived in Cross County, Arkansas, Wynne City. Their
information was gathered on April 2nd. As a side note, my Papaw
(Daniel’s son) is also listed on this same census, possibly living next door
with my Grandma (Lucille Paul Sanders) and my uncle Benny. I have no proof of that other than their information is listed right above Daniel and Minnie's information.

Daniel Sanders is listed as Head,
male, white, 62 years old, married, hadn’t attended school since March of that
year, and his highest grade attended was 4th grade. He is listed as
being born in Illinois and the question after that (15C) is for CODE (leave
blank). "61" is listed there. He is listed as being in the same house. For
questions 21-24, he had listed "no". These were work-related questions. He wasn’t
working at that time or seeking work. In the next column (question #25), he was
listed as U (Unable to work). He died of Parkinson's disease so it's possible the disease had rendered him unable to work by this point. For question #33, he listed that he was getting
income from another source. This was the first year social security was in place
for retired workers so it’s possible he was one of those recipients. He may have gone ahead and retired and was able to collect social security on top of possibly a railroad pension.

Minnie Sanders is listed as Wife,
female, white, 62 years old (inaccurate, but probably listed as that for
convenience), married, hadn’t attended school since March of that year, and her
highest grade attended was 8th grade. Question 15C has "84" in it. She
has “same house” listed as residence. “No” was entered for all the occupation
questions and she listed "household" as her occupation. She listed she was not
receiving income from any other source.

These are all the census records
I have used for Daniel Sanders. I found a World War I draft registration card
for him:

Daniel Sanders WWI Draft Registration Card

The draft registration card shows Daniel Sanders worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.